No - I'm not dead. Thanks for asking.

Seriously. I'm not. I just moved - for a really long time. I packed my computer and Internet and stuff. I couldn't do anything. For like. A really. Long time. I only go the Internet back 2 weeks ago. Sorry. I'm bad. Sorry.

The move
It was relatively uneventful. We blew across the eastern part of the US with hard drive, suitcases, fire extinguisher, cat (with cat Valium), pillows, and a bag of hangers in tow (do not ask). We spent night one in Buffalo and night two in beautiful Burlington, MA. I think we ate a Chilis. It's kind of a blur.

The driving was pretty painless - we literally didn't hit traffic until I turned onto the Mass Pike sometime late one Sunday afternoon. I got stressed out and paranoid after 10 hours of driving - as I usually do - and I drove for 10 hours because my husband and I are morons. We were like, yeah, let's split up the drive. So we don't do it in shifts so that I drive for a couple of hours then he drives for a couple of hours. We drive in days. It was stupid. Don't be stupid like us.

We got to our place about 4 days ahead of the movers. That was hard, but we did spend lots of quality time figuring out where to put our furniture when it arrived and which bedroom we should sleep in and which would function as the office/guest room. Our stuff finally came - and despite a few casualties (our printer/fax/copier no longer works and the movers split my dresser in two) - we unpacked in 3 days.

The horror
The place is no longer a complete disaster. The kitchen is still a little sketchy, as is the office. I figure another Saturday of sorting and storing should take care of it.

I'm still living out of my suitcase since the place where I store clothes - my large, maple dresser is shrink-wrapped in the front hallway to keep it from coming apart. Yeah, it's full of my clothes. The moving company hasn't responded to us about the claim yet - so I'm hopeful we'll get some kind of cash settlement to cover the cost of replacing the broken items. But, I'm not holding my breath.

The unholy trinity
We had 4 (nearly 5) days to do stuff around town that didn't involve our stuff (since it hadn't arrived yet). We chose to spend this time, together, getting our cars registered, going to the RMV to get new licenses and opening bank accounts.

In Chicago, the people are unpleasant at the DMV, but I found the fine folks at the Watertown RMV (next to the Old Country Buffet) to be really friendly despite the fact that the databases went down just as we tried to get our licenses. We had to go back 2x before we got our licenses.

What do they call Mass drivers again?
I didn't have to take a test - which made me really happy. At the time, I thought I didn't have to take a test because I'm a good driver and my record reflects that. In the 2 weeks since I got my license, I've changed my mind about the test thing. I believe they don't administer tests because there's nothing to test - there are no laws or rules of the road here in MA. It's every frickin' person for herself.

I really should have been more suspicious when the tow-truck driver who delivered my car (seriously, we weren't going to drive 2 cars across America) told me to just always keep moving when I'm in the car.

"If you're in those rotaries, you just keep going - never stop. And remember, the people moving have the right of way."

Sure, it's good advice. And I was struck by the driver's advice mostly because we had just chatted about how we just came from Chicago. People drive in Chicago - I regularly drove in Chicago. It's got the 3rd worst traffic in the US. But this dude from Boston thought I just fell off the turnip truck.

I have encountered this behavior regularly. Apparently, Boston is the 2nd largest city in America - only in the minds of Bostonians.

Labels: 2002